Oliver whitehead



(No Model.)

, 0. WHITEHEAD.

FENGE STAY.

No. 554,560. Patented Feb. 11, 1896.

Indenior. 01mg!" W/i die/2cm. 42am,

i/iilmsses:

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLIVER \VHITEHEAD, OF DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WARREN E.BEEGHLY, OF SAME PLACE.

FENCE-STAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 554,560, dated February11, 1896.

Application filed. June 20, 1895. Serial No. 553,485. (No model.)

To all whom it may cancer-a.-

Be it known that I, OLIVER WHITEHEAD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, haveinvented new and useful Im- V provements in Wire Fences and a StayTherefor; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the invention.

The object of the stay is, first, to firmly lock the wires in wirefences; second, to prevent the wires from being either pulled apart ordrawn together; third, to keep the wires in exact position, and, fourth,to furnish a stay which cannot he slid or moved along the wires at will.

Figure 1 of the drawings shows part of a fence with three staysattached. Fig. 2 gives a front View of the stay, showing the inside orhollow part of it. Fig. 3 shows the exact shape of the slots in thestay, through which the wires are drawn.

The stay is made of sheet-steel of about onesixteenth inch in thickness,bent in U shape, so that the distance from edge to edge (a to b in Fig.2) is about one-half inch. In each side of the stay as many slots arepunched as wires are strung on the fence. Through these slots (the shapeof which is shown by Fig. 3) the wires are to be drawn. The hole part(m, Fig. 3) of the slot is to be about three sixteenths inch indiameter; the entrance part (n, Fig. 3) about one-fourth inch wide.

On one side of the stay the slots slant upward, (see 01 e f of Fig. 2,)and on the other they are reversed and slant down, (see 9 h t' of Fig.2,) so that the fence-wires have to be twisted in order to be put in theslot.

The slots are to be made so that the hole parts of the slots of one sideof the stay are directly opposite those of the other, with the exceptionof the slots for the top and bottom wires.

The slots for the top and bot-tom wires difier from the rest in so farthat the center of the hole part of the slots of one side of the stay isabout one-fourth inch (more or less) higher than the center of the holepart of the opposite slot, so that the wires run diagonally through thestay. After the top and bottom wires are drawn through the slots, theyare kinked with a separate tool, especially made for this purpose, thekink on one side being upward and downward on the other, (see 10, Fig.2,) so that the wire continues in exactly the same height and directionafter running through the stay as it did before entering it. The kink,as well as the difference in the height of the hole parts of the top andbottom slots on the two sides of the stay, has the effect of firmlylocking the wires and preventing them from either being spread apart orbeing drawn together, thus keeping the wires in exact position.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is

In a wire fence the combination with the strands of wire, of a stay ofsubstantially U shape in cross-section, said stay having slots formed inits opposite sides to receive the wires, the slots on one side slantingupwardly and on the other side downwardly, the inner ends of theopposing slots for the top and bottom wires being indifferent horizontalplanes, and those of the opposing slots for the intermediate wires beingin substantially the same horizontal planes, the top and bottom wiresbeing kinked upwardly on one side of the post and downwardly on theopposite side and the intermediate wires being straight, substantiallyas and for the purpose specified.

PHILIPP 'VVALDEMAR LEONHARDT, ANDREW JOHNSON.

